ARTSBEAT; Judge Said to Be Frustrated by ‘Spider-Man’ Battle

By PATRICK HEALY

Published: March 13, 2013

struggling to reach a settlement over copyright control and profits for the Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” as the legal wrangling entered a seventh month and a trial date of May 27 loomed.

According to two people who attended the closed-door session with Judge Katherine B. Forrest, of Federal District Court in Manhattan, she expressed frustration that an agreement had not been completed in spite of the parties’ coming to terms in principle in August.">

A federal judge had tough words on Monday for the parties struggling to reach a settlement over copyright control and profits for the Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” as the legal wrangling entered a seventh month and a trial date of May 27 loomed.

According to two people who attended the closed-door session with Judge Katherine B. Forrest, of Federal District Court in Manhattan, she expressed frustration that an agreement had not been completed in spite of the parties’ coming to terms in principle in August.

“The judge is pretty fed up,” said one person involved with the lawsuit who was at Monday’s session, and who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door deliberations. “For months we’ve all been saying we’re a week or two away from a deal, but it still hasn’t happened.” The second person, who declined to be identified by name for the same reasons, said the judge had not set a deadline for a settlement but noted that the trial was set to begin in two months.

The reasons for the long slog are unclear. The lawsuit is primarily between Julie Taymor, the musical’s former director and one of its script writers, and the producers (who fired her from the show in March 2011) and the “Spider-Man” composers, Bono and the Edge of U2; other parties include Marvel Entertainment, which holds the license for the Spider-Man brand. Ms. Taymor initially sued in November 2011 on copyright grounds, saying the producers were making money off her ideas and script and owed her more than $1 million. The producers then filed their own suit, saying that they had fired Ms. Taymor for breach of contract and that her legal claims were overstated or baseless.

The two people who spoke about Monday’s court proceedings said that Ms. Taymor and the producers had come to terms on money, so the hold-up did not involve her compensation. Rather, the two people said that there were so many parties in the case and interests at stake – such as Bono and the Edge’s copyright protections and share in the royalties, as well as licensing of the show for future productions – that several teams of lawyers were causing the negotiations to become protracted.

“It is a settlement process with a great many layers of people,” said the second person who was in court on Monday.

Rick Miramontez, a spokesman for the lead producers of “Spider-Man,” Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris, said that the producers had no comment on the session with Judge Forrest. A lawyer for the producers also declined to comment, and a lawyer for Ms. Taymor did not respond to phone messages or e-mail seeking comment.

“Spider-Man,” by far the most expensive musical in the history of Broadway with a budget of at least $75 million, opened in June 2011 to largely negative reviews after months of preview performances that had been plagued by cast injuries as well as infighting among the creative team before Ms. Taymor’s dismissal. The show has gone on to be a fan favorite, grossing more than $1 million a week, though its weekly ticket sales have dipped slightly in recent months. The producers have not announced future productions but are known to be considering venues in London and elsewhere in Europe.

Ms. Taymor, meanwhile, is set to make her first return to New York theater since “Spider-Man”: She will direct Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” this fall for the inaugural production of the new Brooklyn home of Theater for a New Audience, an Off Broadway company.

This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.

PHOTO

struggling to reach a settlement over copyright control and profits for the Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” as the legal wrangling entered a seventh month and a trial date of May 27 loomed.

According to two people who attended the closed-door session with Judge Katherine B. Forrest, of Federal District Court in Manhattan, she expressed frustration that an agreement had not been completed in spite of the parties’ coming to terms in principle in August.">